SUDDENLY THE KIDS GET TO SEE THEIR LIVES IN A WORLD PERSPECTIVE OF CONSERVATION

Growing up with wildlife was mostly seen as a threat to these kids from the villages surrounding the wildlife reserves. They will one day be the adults who could determine the very future maintenance of this world treasure. While they live next to this sometime predatory wildlife, few African kids had ever experienced a photo safari in which the naturalists get to tell another side to growing up with wildlife. The conservation of this scarce wildlife that tourists from all over the world come to experience in the ultimate "safari" of their lives. There is no inherent guarantee that these reserves will survive. The Kenyan wildlife reserves require a significant portion of the one-third of the land that is habitable with rapidly growing population pressure.

The biggest surprise of the Kenyan kids' program has been the overwhelming response that tops off the contribution to wildlife conservation - the instant self-esteem the kids demonstrate as if a light-switch was turned on by their few day "tourist safari" in the well-appointed 4-by vehicles accompanied by tourist camp guides and naturalists. Much criticism of working with native communities in "wildlife conservation" stems from subordinating local social issues to lofty international pressures.

SAFARI KIDS FROM NEARBY VILLAGES

Kenyan children ages 8-18 from the villages and schools surrounding the reserves are the most immediate source for joining a Kenyan Kids on Safari sponsored by such leading safari camps as Sarova Mara. Most of the local children never had the experience of a wildlife viewing drive, only viewing the animals as a threat to their cattle, crops and bomas. The kids are also sometimes invited to mix with tourist families on their drives.